#mun rants

I feel very nervous sometimes about posting my Elnor HCs knowing the way that he's typically characterized within the fics I have read and worrying I'm the odd one out, but like it boils down to 3 things:

1. Elnor is young and inexperienced, but he is not naive or fragile. He's intelligent, capable, and has survived a lot of shit.

2. Romulans aren't Humans. They don't think like Humans. They have distinct psychological and moral profiles.

3. If Romulans entering the Federation means they have to give up their culture to fit in, then it's not the right time to join.

Followed by what's probably my hottest hot-take:

4. I really don't think Elnor belongs in Starfleet. I love the idea of him being a fish out of water for a bit, but this should not be his final stop.

And the reason 'why' comes back to #3. One of the biggest issues Star Trek seems to have as more and more species join the Federation is that all the species worried about the UFP's neocolonialism and soft imperialism (like the Klingons and Romulans) are... rightfully worried?

Picard, the character, is the biggest symbol of and perpetrator of this in the show. He does it often on TNG. I think about this scene from DS9 a lot because it sums up generally how I feel about Picard, the character:

What really baffles me are the comments on this video all being about Wolf 359. But, look, that is not the emotional core of this scene. The core of this scene is Picard, a white man, ordering Sisko, a black man, to bring a planet that only just freed itself from imperial military occupation into the Federation whether the Bajorans want it or not. Star Trek has always been a metaphor for real politics, and this scene is pretty blatant in what it's about. Sisko says it out loud, on-screen.

This is also the exact same kind of presumptive, self-centered, culturally oblivious attitude that Picard displays towards Elnor and the Romulans. It's much more subtle, because this time the Federation is going "Picard, no, don't, we don't want them, " but it's there. Because Picard wants them. His need to be a hero to the Romulans is etched in.

It's there when Picard goes back to Vashti, sits down in the social club with the big "No Humans" sign, and doesn't seem to even ask why it's there. He just gets indignant. He sits down anyway like he owns the place and orders a drink as if he didn't break his promises to the Romulan people. It doesn't cross his mind that the Federation are no longer heroes to a people they left to die. (Rommie fans screaming 'D'era!' from he back of the room we'll get to that don't worry)

It's there when Elnor asks: "That's why you need someone. Why do you need me?" and all Picard can say is how he is young and strong and a capable warrior. Elnor's emotional needs are ignored and not even seen. And what's worse (which is killer acting on both Patrick Stewart and Evan Evagora's parts) is Picard hesitates right before he says this, in a way that makes it clear he heard, understood, considered, and ignored.

It's there when Picard appeals to Elnor as a qalankhai, then tells him off for killing someone in his defense, which is literally a qalankhai's job. And it's there when he makes Elnor promise not to kill anyone without his permission, and Elnor says, "I swear it," with a ceremonial gesture. He then looks to Picard every time someone who may be a potential threat shows up. He has every intention to keep this oath to the letter.

This is a big deal for Romulan honor. Warrior honor determines your position in the afterlife. Elnor grew up in a convent. He might not believe in the supernatural elements of Romulus's religions, but Romulan religion is orthopraxic, not orthodoxic: it's united by behavior, ethics, and rituals, not beliefs. (They're called Praxani; I'd link them but Memory Beta is incomplete.) The Qowat Milat are pontixes who swing honor blades around. They are patroned by the Imperial kindred in the showrunner's notes, a parallel to Charvanek's clashes with the Tal Shiar.

But Picard, who has spent decades of his life now working with Romulans, has been living with Romulans for at least 10 years, and considers himself the personal crusader for the Romulan people, calls the Qowat Milat the antithesis to everything Romulans believe. In all that time, he never bothered to learn about their actual culture. Laris is his romantic interest for two seasons and he never learned her culture. Tallinn swears in Romulan in front of him in S2 and he does not notice. He seems genuinely surprised when she takes off her Human disguise.

Picard is self-centered, self-righteous, and closed off. Raffi calls him out on never checking in with her. Multiple characters call him out for this behavior. S2 is a mystery box devoted entirely to getting him to unlearn it. This progress is then obliterated neatly in S3 when he drops the Romulan Laris the moment Beverly and a biological son come back into his life. After his "breakthrough" in S2, Picard never really learned anything. The show does a good job of calling him out until it doesn't.

Elnor loves Picard and hero-worships him. I, the mun, despise him, for all the above reasons. I can't imagine Elnor is so naive that he wouldn't eventually realize this, too. He was right the first time in the first scene we see of him grown: "You left me alone, old man. I see no reason why I shouldn't do the same." His love won't really ever be returned. But he helps because of an attachment to Picard as a father figure: something Picard, who chose the mission over Elnor's life, in S2, will never be.

I feel pretty strongly that as far as most of the people in Elnor's life are concerned, Elnor is a symbol of progress, not a person. This feels especially true for Picard, who makes an on-screen point to note Elnor's symbolic importance in his commencement speech at the Academy. He then lets that symbol of progress die in his care, and doesn't even seem to really grieve. The arc I prefer for Elnor (and use in my fics) is one where he realizes he's being tokenized, stops hero-worshiping this man, and strikes out on his own to chart a path where he doesn't have to compromise his culture or agency to find family and acceptance.

And I think one of the things that's such a shame about this (and part of ST:PIC's depressingly wasted potential) is that S1 did a good job of interrogating this aspect of Picard's character. The episodes of TNG I've always loved the best were ones where the writers seemed to understand that Picard is a flawed and contradictory person. On our Starship Earth he embodies the kind of paternal cluelessness that you do often see in real life from polities similar to the Federation. He's a useful character for talking about well-meaning prejudice and blind spots. And we see him realize and overcome this on Coppelius.

.... and then again in a much more self-serving format in S2 where he gets half his crew killed to go on a self-actualization mission...

.... and then in S3 when-- Well, actually, no, S3 Picard goes back on everything he learned. The entire point of S3 seems to be to retcon all that came before, with the intent to return to the 'status quo' of TNG/DS9 Picard. A status quo in which Picard orders someone to force a planet into the Federation whether they want to join or not. And it uses Ro Laren to do it. So this pattern never really ends with Picard. And my hope for Elnor if we get him back on another show is that they give him to writers who are self-aware of what this dynamic seems to imply.